19 May 2007

Where I've been

It's been forever since I've blogged - gads, I hate to look and see just how long, but I've been busy!

I've got a full load of classes (6), and only a few people managing to pass, so students are taking up loads of time. The "main" house is on the market, and we are almost ready to list the old one. God I'll be happy when this move is over.

In the past few days, though, I've been consumed with getting all my genealogy stuff entered on a way cool new site Mitch turned me onto, Geni. I've got 10 generations of my mom's family entered so far, and we are still all from freaking North America. This is maddening! The crest you see at the left is the Mx family shield (Mx referring to Mullennix, Molyneaux, Mullinax, etc), Here's some interesting info on the family's possible origins in the US.:

The Mullinax line has been traced back to three brothers, however if this is true then the migration of the father of the three brothers was very unusual. The eldest, Ammannuel was born in upcountry South Carolina at a time (1730) when that was still Indian country. It was 25 years before the area was first settled by Europeans (the area was ceded to the "whites" by the 1755 treaty and large scale settlement of Scotch-Irish and Germans began pouring into the piedmont from the Shenandoah valley between 1765 & 1770). Then, the middle child John was born “about” 1737 in Tidewater Virginia, and the youngest Matthew was born circa 1755 in Dublin, Ireland. While the age difference is unusual (albeit possible), what is particularly questionable was the direction of travel. From Indian country, SC to Coastal Virginia and then to Ireland? If it was the other way around it would be believable but this direction of travel makes me very suspicious.

It has been claimed that all 50-odd variations of the surname (collectively referred to as Mx) descend from branch's of the Molyneux noble family of Britain, and thus ultimately from Robert le Diable de Moulins, suspected bastard of the Spanish noble-descended priest Peter Abelard and a French nun Heloise (though other version's say Peter was from Normandy or Brittany and that the child of the affair was named Astrolabe). Robert's sons were captain's in William the Conqueror's army and the many descendants of the family hold titles in Lancastershire in England, in Ireland, and elsewhere, including the main branch which were Earls of Sefton until 1972. While there were many branches of this family in Ireland at the right time, and while many of this family did have to flee Britain at various times for various reasons (mostly choosing the losing side in wars or under prosecution for their Catholic faith) (--This sounds very much like the family members I have grown up hearing about - we never pick the winning sides of wars!) I have not seen this connection proven so I have very little faith in this story. Many a time I have seen similar claims disproved. Nonetheless, I include it here as a bit of interesting trivia.